Movies like The Heart Exposed (1986)
The best movies like The Heart Exposed (1986) are Just an Illusion (2026), Out of Season (2024) and I Got Life! (2017). If The Heart Exposed hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThree Colors: White (1994)7.4/10 from 1,400 votes
- NewestJust an Illusion (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchJust an Illusion (2026)Also in French
Just an Illusion (2026)
In 1985 suburban Paris, 12-year-old Vincent lives with his distant older brother and quarrelling parents. Amid laughter and unease, he navigates friendship and first love, while beginning to confront the adult world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut of Season (2024)
Mathieu lives in Paris, Alice in a small seaside resort in Western France. He is a famous actor, about to turn fifty. She is a piano teacher in her forties. They were in love fifteen years ago, then separated. Time has passed. They each went their ways and slowly healed. When Mathieu goes try to overcome his melancholia in a thermal spa, he stumbles upon Alice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Got Life! (2017)
Aurore has separated, just lost her job, and learns that she is going to be a grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBed and Board (1970)
Parisian everyman Antoine Doinel has married his sweetheart Christine Darbon, and the newlyweds have set up a cozy domestic life of selling flowers and giving violin lessons while Antoine fitfully works on his long-gestating novel. As Christine becomes pregnant with the couple's first child, Antoine finds himself enraptured with a young Japanese beauty. The complications change the course of their relationship forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStolen Kisses (1968)
The third in a series of films featuring François Truffaut's alter-ego, Antoine Doinel, the story resumes with Antoine being discharged from military service. His sweetheart Christine's father lands Antoine a job as a security guard, which he promptly loses. Stumbling into a position assisting a private detective, Antoine falls for his employers' seductive wife, Fabienne, and finds that he must choose between the older woman and Christine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeautiful Minds (2022)
Two men, with vastly different life stories and personalities, embark on a hearse heading to the South of France. During their journey they realize that, however unlikely, they're not so different in the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Things of Life (1970)
The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memories of the past with Catherine, his ex-wife; but his true destiny awaits him at a crossroads on his way to Rennes…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCome Undone (2000)
Story of two gorgeous, young French boys who begin a passionate relationship that boils over and threatens to destroy both their lives. Shy 18-year-old Mathieu is on summer vacation in the south of France. He spends his days lazily sunning himself at the beach, until he spies the handsome Cédric and falls in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Little Loves (1974)
Daniel lives with his grandmother and, after a year of high school, goes to live with his mother in the south of France; a harsher environment which rapidly changes his perception of friends, work, and women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye Again (1961)
Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPardon Mon Affaire (1976)
On an otherwise normal day, Étienne, a happily married man and a good father, sees something that stops him dead in his tracks: a gorgeous woman in a billowing red dress. Long after she has left his vision, her memory continues to haunt his mind. He falls instantly in love with her and tries everything to get to know her better. Helping Étienne snare his elusive lady in red are his three bumbling buddies, which all have secret affairs and/or cheat on their wives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove on the Run (1979)
Now in his thirties, Antoine Doinel is a divorced proofreader in love with a record seller. Colette Tazzi, now a lawyer, buys his first published autobiography, leading them to a chance meeting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Mother and the Whore (1973)
Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Single Girl (1995)
A young Parisian must make major decisions about pregnancy, a job, and her boyfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Party 2 (1982)
After moving to a new city, a young French teenage girl falls in love with a boy and thinks of having sex with him, since her girl friends have already done it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood Grief (2023)
When his husband unexpectedly dies, Marc's world shatters, sending him and his two best friends on a soul-searching trip to Paris that reveals some hard truths they each needed to face.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Colors of Fire (2022)
February 1927. The funeral of Marcel Péricourt, the most powerful banker in Paris. His daughter Madeleine must take the helm of the financial empire of which she is the heiress. But she has a son, Paul, who with an unexpected and tragic gesture will place her on the path to ruin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThree Colors: White (1994)
Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMuriel, or the Time of Return (1963)
In the seacoast town of Boulogne, antique furniture saleswoman Hélène lives with her stepson, Bernard, who's back from military duty in Algiers. An old lover of Hélène's comes to visit, Alphonse, with his niece Françoise; he too is back from Algiers, where he ran a café. Bernard speaks of his fiancée, Muriel, whom Hélène has not met. The past is obscured by guilt, misperceptions, and missed possibilities. Appearances deceive, things change. As Hélène and Alphonse try to sort out a renewal, everyone seems off-kilter just enough to hint that all cannot end well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomething's Gotta Give (2003)
When perpetually single, aging music industry exec Harry Sanborn, and his latest trophy girlfriend, Marin, arrive at her mother's beach house in the Hamptons, they find that her mother, playwright Erica Barry, also plans to stay for the weekend. Erica is scandalized by the relationship and Harry's sexist ways. But when Harry has a heart attack while there, and the doctor prescribes bedrest, his only option is to stay at the Barry home. Left in the care of Erica and his doctor, a love triangle starts to take shape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Heart Exposed?
The closest matches to The Heart Exposed are Just an Illusion (2026), Out of Season (2024) and I Got Life! (2017). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Heart Exposed?
Start with Just an Illusion (2026), the closest match to The Heart Exposed.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Heart Exposed?
Three Colors: White (1994), rated 7.4/10 by 1,400 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Heart Exposed?
Just an Illusion (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Heart Exposed?
Yes: Just an Illusion (2026), Out of Season (2024) and I Got Life! (2017).
How are movies similar to The Heart Exposed chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Heart Exposed, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.